The Huawei Ascend P2 is the newest range-topping handset from Chinese manufacturer Huawei.

Announced at the beginning of Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, the 4G LTE Ascend P2 is also one of the fastest smartphones in the world, with claimed download speeds of 150Mbps (network willing), according to Huawei.

Alas, in the crowded arenas of MWC, this was one claim that ZDNet was unable to test. Nonetheless, we did spend a little bit of time playing with the other features of the device to see how it would fare when it hits the market in the second quarter of 2013.

The handset has a 4.7-inch display (1280 x 720 pixels), just about keeping it within the smartphone category rather than the increasingly popular 'phablet' form factor, and has a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB RAM to keep things ticking along.

OS-wise it runs a tweaked version of Android in conjunction with Huawei's own proprietary Emotion UI that groups home panels with the main menu and puts frequently used apps into individual widgets for easier access and more screen real estate — for example, providing quick access to settings and other features via the tools and management widgets (pictured).

Published: February 28, 2013 -- 09:52 GMT (01:52 PST)

Caption by: Ben Woods

Clicking the 'tools' widget gives quick access to things like weather, calculator, voice recorder etc. These widgets are also customisable and provide quick access to services and tools.

Huawei specifically touts how sensitive the screen on the phone is, but a couple of times I did have to prod it more than once to perform an operation.

Published: February 28, 2013 -- 09:52 GMT (01:52 PST)

Caption by: Ben Woods

One of the other tweaks included with the UI is the way in which screen transitions are handled. Unlike stock Android, and most other Android-based handsets, the P2 features a rolling-type motion as you move between different home screens.

Published: February 28, 2013 -- 09:52 GMT (01:52 PST)

Caption by: Ben Woods

The handset itself felt pretty well built and on the light side of things, although Huawei didn't say exactly what it weighs.

At just 8.4mm thin it certainly is thin enough too, coming in 0.1mm thinner than the rival ZTE Grand Memo.

Published: February 28, 2013 -- 09:52 GMT (01:52 PST)

Caption by: Ben Woods

Huawei has also matched the Grand Memo's megapixel count in the camera on the rear of the device, which has a 13-megapixel sensor with HDR.

On the side of the phone there's a dedicated camera shutter button: press it once to open the camera and press it again to take a picture.

There's also a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front of the handset too, for video calling and photos.

The Ascend P2 is due to go on sale in France on the Orange network in June, but no pricing or specific availability for other countries has been announced.

Huawei Ascend P2: Hands-on with the 150Mbps 4G smartphone

Huawei showed off its 4G LTE-equipped Ascend P2 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. ZDNet spent a little time with it.

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The Huawei Ascend P2 is the newest range-topping handset from Chinese manufacturer Huawei.

Announced at the beginning of Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, the 4G LTE Ascend P2 is also one of the fastest smartphones in the world, with claimed download speeds of 150Mbps (network willing), according to Huawei.

Alas, in the crowded arenas of MWC, this was one claim that ZDNet was unable to test. Nonetheless, we did spend a little bit of time playing with the other features of the device to see how it would fare when it hits the market in the second quarter of 2013.

The handset has a 4.7-inch display (1280 x 720 pixels), just about keeping it within the smartphone category rather than the increasingly popular 'phablet' form factor, and has a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB RAM to keep things ticking along.

OS-wise it runs a tweaked version of Android in conjunction with Huawei's own proprietary Emotion UI that groups home panels with the main menu and puts frequently used apps into individual widgets for easier access and more screen real estate — for example, providing quick access to settings and other features via the tools and management widgets (pictured).